


Rebecca vs. Diamante

by spire_kite



Category: One Piece
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-06-03 00:23:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6589252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spire_kite/pseuds/spire_kite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The teaser panel at the end of “One Piece, Vol. 75” heavily implied there was going to be a showdown between Rebecca and Diamante.  This was not delivered.  So I went ahead and wrote one anyway.</p><p>To be explicit, this starts where Rebecca finds Diamante in the Flower Field, and goes to when Kyros makes it up to them.  Everything else proceeds the same as canon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rebecca vs. Diamante

"So it's you..." Diamante smiled, casually brushing the last of the petals from his cloak. “Did you come to hear me to say it again, Rebecca? I’m the one who killed-”

Out of the corner of his eye, he just caught a blur of motion; a split second later, her sword slammed into him, catching him just under the jaw, whipping his head around and nearly lifting him off his feet.

“You witch!” he swore hoarsely, grasping his throat. If that blade had had any sort of edge at all…

He had been looking directly at her when she attacked, but had seen nothing; not until the very last instant. He scowled, then shook himself. He had been careless, that’s all. Nobody could actually be that fast. Nobody.

Rebecca stood where she had landed, her back to him, body poised, paused; her sword held level before her. Slowly, she turned, raised her gaze to meet his. Her eyes were cold, chill, blank; washed clean by absolute, inexpressible rage.

And, for the first time in years, the Champion of the Coliseum felt himself shiver.

 

“Grrr! Hold STILL, curse you!” he barked. A dozen Rebecca after-images blurred and raced, flashed and wove in front of him. “Tch! Colibri [Hummingbird] Glaive!” His blade lashed out; in a single curlicue slash, he neatly sliced through every last one of the speeding Rebeccas, instantly, simultaneously. And his sword passed through them all harmlessly, bloodlessly, finding not the least resistance.

“Grrah! Where are…” A shadow pass over him; and he was suddenly aware of her, flipping up and over his head; gazing balefully, blankly downward upon him as she wafted above him.

“HA!” he cried spinning, sword already swerving out in a wide, scything sweep-

-only to find he was once more cutting empty space; the vacant flower field stretched out before him without even her mirage to show that she had been there.

“Hunh?” he said, glancing about. Utterly missing the light, gloved hands balanced upon his shoulders.

With a swing, she arced down behind him, stabbing the metal points of both boots into the backs of his knees.

“GAAAH!” Heavily, he fell forward onto his knees.

“You conniving little…”

\--click--

It was a small, almost insignificant sound; a toy winding up would make much the same noise. Nonetheless, it focused Diamante’s mind like nothing else. A glance at his belt confirmed what he already knew: one of his pistols was missing. A pistol that had just been cocked behind his head. Rebecca was standing behind him, finger on the trigger, a hair’s breadth away from shooting him down with his own gun.

For a long moment they remained like this; Diamante on his knees; Rebecca, head bowed, gun trained between the gaudy feathers of his cloak.

“Why?” she said at last.

Diamante twitched.

“This is how it’s supposed to happen, isn’t it? I hurt you; I beat and defeat and humiliate you: and I feel better. I kill you, shoot you down, just like you shot my mother so long ago: and all the pain, the years of sorrow and anger and confusion, it all goes away. That’s how it’s supposed to work, isn’t it? Killing you is how I become whole once again. So then why,” she raised her face, revealing eyes that were no longer blank but which had twin trails of tears flowing quietly from them. “Why instead do I feel so…empty…right now?”

Diamante smirked. With a vicious, unhinging kick, he swept backwards, knocking her off her feet. She gasped and pitched to the ground. In the same motion, he plucked his gun from mid-air and held it aloft.

“Heh. Heh-heh-heh. AH!—HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HOOoooo-h. You know? For a second there, I thought you were actually going to do it. That you might actually take me down. But you didn’t have what it takes, Rebecca. You never did.” He shrugged and shook his head, sighing patronizingly. “You have the skills, my dear, but at the end of the day, you honestly just don’t understand violence. An embarrassment of a gladiator.” He grinned widely and lowered the pistol, bringing it to bear on her head. “You couldn’t kill me. You couldn’t avenge your mother. And you can’t even save yourself.”

She grimaced up at him, fearful but defiant, not blinking or looking away as his finger glided to the trigger.

“Inside or out of the Coliseum, there is only ever one true Champion. And it certainly isn’t yoooaAAURGH!” Red blossomed across his chest; the pistol flew from his hand. And a tall, dark figure suddenly stood, one-legged, between him and Rebecca.

“I couldn’t agree more,” said Kyros grimly.


End file.
